Tabla (not to be confused with Arabic tabla) is a pair of drums. It consists of a small right hand drum called dayan (literally means right) and a larger metal one called bayan (literally means left).

Undoubtedly the most striking characteristic of the tabla is the large black spot (called siyahi) on each of the playing surfaces. The siyahi (Siyah literally means black) is mixture of gum, soot, and iron filings. Its function is to create the bell-like timbre that is the characteristic of the instrument. The invention of sitar and tabla and many other things is attributed to Amir Khosro Dehlavi. There is a tendency among Indians to attribute the development of almost everything to him. Anyway it is unfortunate that the history of the beginning of tabla is still in dispute.

If you like to meet some professional tabla players, please join the following group:

Indian Tabla Group

About our tabla forum:

Greetings! This group is for all those percussionists interested in Indian tabla and tala-s.

We welcome your participation. Please introduce yourself, and remember to put your tabla related website URLs in the links section. The calendar too, is available to all. Please keep all posts related to drumming, focusing on the use of tabla. Mentioning other instruments and music in context is fine. However, political posts, flames, and those posts considered hostile or offensive to list members are off topic, and repeated off topic posts are grounds for removal.

Peyman Nasehpour (the moderator) and Chris Sampson (the co-moderator)

Tabla Links